The Blue Box
by Weatherlibby
Summary: When two friends go on a autumn hike and find a police box, badly damaged in the middle of the woods, they meet a mysterious man who calls himself "the Doctor" and are swept into an adventure bigger than they could ever believe.


**This will probably be a one-shot, and it's my first thing to write in the Doctor Who fandom!**_  
_

* * *

_Don't go into those woods, girls. They're dangerous. _

_Alright, Mother, I won't. _

_Do you promise?_

_Yes, mother, I promise._

* * *

"Johanna, I think we're lost."

I scoffed. "I've been here a hundred times, we are not lost."

"Are you sure? Your mom said that the woods are dangerous-"

I turned around, my tennis shoes hitting a tree root on the loosely formed pathway, to face my best friend. "The woods are not dangerous. What's the worst that could happen? Blair Witch Project?"

I turned back around and continued walking, dodging a tree branch that had fallen haphazardly in a diagonal fashion. Peering up at the sky, I noticed that sunlight peeking out from snow clouds wasn't reaching the ground. _Too many trees in the way, _I laughed to myself_. _I started to hum the theme song of _Pirates of the Caribbean, _not really having a clue where I was going. But woods are fun and trees are cool. So I wasn't very worried.

The woods have a long history. They are protected under some law to never be cut down, and some of the trees are as old as one hundred and fifty years old. The wood's at the edge of the town, spanning several hundred miles into the wilderness. So, if you get lost….

You stay lost.

But what's the point in having woods if they can't be explored?

No one really knows how big the woods are. They were surveyed during the Louisiana Purchase, but only in parts. If you walk far enough, you'll see little plaques giving the information on the land. Native Americans lived here too, once, and if you're very lucky you'll find an arrowhead, a smashed piece of pottery, or some homemade jewelry that was left behind. A few people have gone missing, stupid teenagers who don't listen to their parents-

Oh, wait.

Well, my mother seems to think that there's a drug lab or a secret band of kidnappers hiding out in the woods. There's not, obviously, but the woods have always seemed mysterious and somewhat….magical. No fairies or unicorns. Those are for children. And I don't go into the woods to defy my mother; that would be childish.

"Well, where are we now?" Samantha asked. A glint of maroon caught my eye as I ran up ahead. The red scarf I had placed as a marker months before was still securely double-knotted onto the tree, although it was covered in leaves and mud. I picked up the pitiful, frayed end off of the ground a tucked it under nicely, patting the tree when I was done.

"Red means we are…." I tried to remember how many miles red meant, when a sudden gust of biting wind blew through the branches of the trees, and I buttoned my coat up to my chin. "Red is a mile and a half, I think." I glanced down at my snowman gloves, a bit out of season for mid-November, but fall was rapidly falling into winter. There were bits of bark stuck to the woolen fabric, and I brushed them off on my jeans. "And yellow is three miles, blue is four, and I haven't gotten further than that."

"And you come out here by yourself?"

"Sometimes I bring my dog." I nodded. "But my imagination's too active to get past four miles. Speaking of active imaginations, do you want to hear a ghost story?"

"No."

"Alright."

"These woods are creepy enough." Samantha remarked, wrapping a scarf around her neck.

"Well, yeah. They are kind of weird. But it's not creepy. It's a good weird. A different weird. Like the woods are special. And it's our job to find out why." When my completely quote-worthy moment failed to generate a response, I turned around to see Samantha walking off path into the woods. "Hey, where are you going?" I yelled. She broke out into a slow run, and underneath all of my sweaters and coats I found keeping up with her to be fairly hard. "Where the heck are you going? Now we're _really _going to get lost." When I finally caught up to her, I was out of breath and coughing. She was standing in front of a big, blue…box?

Wait…..

We're two miles into the woods. Why was there a telephone box in the middle of nowhere?

"What do you think it is?" I asked.

"I don't know." It looked in bad shape. Some of the windows were broken, and the door was slightly ajar. There was a white sign that read:

POLICE TELEPHONE  
FREE  
For use of  
PUBLIC  
Advice & Assistance  
Obtainable Immediately  
Officer & Cars  
Respond to all cars  
Pull to Open

"What does that mean?" Samantha asked confusedly.

"It's a telephone." I stated. We stared at it in awe for a few moments. Then I clapped my hands together. "Well, let's see if it works." Samantha rolled her eyes and I laughed. I pushed open the door and closed it behind me. I opened my eyes to adjust to the dark box, when I discovered that it wasn't a box at all. I was in a much larger room, with a god-knows-what machine stuck in the middle. I heard Samantha jokingly say from the outside,

"So, does it work?" When I didn't reply, she opened the door. Her eyes opened wide, as she almost gasped-

"It's bigger on-"

"Bigger on the inside." A voice confirmed. I froze at the sound. Samantha shot me a panicked look. I took a deep breath and tried to swallow my fear. Oh my god, my mother was right. There were kidnappers in the woods.

"He-Hello?"

"Hello!" A friendly voice chimed. I looked around the room.

"Where are you?" I called out into the emptiness.

"Over here!" I followed the sound up a small set of stairs, to the machine, which looked like some gigantic console. There was a screen with a young man wearing a bow-tie waving. "Welcome to my TARDIS!" He said cheerfully.

"TARDIS?" Samantha asked. She walked up the stair, eyes fixed on the man on the screen.

"Time and Relative Dimension In Space," he said hurriedly, "but that's not important. What _is_ important is that you're here. I seem to have…gotten myself stranded. Mid 1820's, I think. I'm the Doctor, by the way."

"The Doctor?" I asked. He nodded.

"And if you'll just pull that switch there, it should take you right back here." I looked at the vast panel of knobs, levers, and buttons.

"How can you be stuck in the 1820's?"

"_Time Travel." _By the contagious grin on his face, I knew my look of disbelief must have been ridiculous looking.

"Time travel? This is a….time machine?"

"But that's impossible!" Samantha shouted.

"Isn't a telephone box that's bigger on the inside pretty impossible too?" I found the one he was pointing to, and looked over to Samantha. I nodded slowly. "Now, if you wouldn't mind, the 1820's are lovely and all, but I rather miss the TARDIS." He gestured to the lever.

"Should we really do this?" I whispered. Samantha nodded. I smiled, and pulled the lever. The Doctor laughed and shouted,

"Geronimo!"

As the mechanical groaning of the TARDIS grew louder and louder, I clung on to the railing, and echoing the Doctor, we both cried out.

"GERONIMO!"


End file.
